A Bad Start For OTT Releases!

Due to the lockdown, it’s been more than two months that the theatres are shut. Still there is uncertainty on opening the theatres but even if they are reopened, there are many doubts that audience will not come to theatres like the before days.

Producers who have this conception are looking at Over The Top (OTT) platforms. Mostly small and medium budget range films are being targeted by OTT platforms with fancy offers. Tempted by the offers, a few producers have decided to release their movies directly on OTT rather than to wait for the theatres to open.

Leading OTT platform Amazon Prime has successfully managed to convince the producers and has bagged the digital rights of half a dozen films. In that line Jyothika’s ‘Ponmagal Vandhal’ got released on Friday on Prime.

However films releasing on OTT are not getting good response. About two months back a small film by name ‘Amrutharamam’ got released on Zee5. The film got a name that it is the first Telugu film to release on OTT in the lockdown and received good publicity. Yet this campaign did not help the film as people who have watched it, gave negative feedback.

If ‘Amrutharamam’ had garnered a good response, many small budget films have dared to release online. Falling in the same line ‘Ponmagal Vandhal’ too received mixed response. Before Jyothika’s film, a Tamil film too released online and that one too got a bad response. Navadeep’s Run which is released on Aha also got Negative reviews.

This is seriously a bad start with OTT releases. Even if one film had garnered good response and highlighted by the media, many producers would have given a thought about release the film on OTT.